Moses Ascends

The last chapter of Deuteronomy is something of a tear jerker. Moses, the man of God, who has represented the coming Messiah to the nation of Israel in so many ways, (promise, picture and person), who saved them out of bondage in Egypt, who had averted the wrath of God from destroying them for their rebellion, who even had beheld the back of the Father as well as the face of the pre-incarnate Christ, is finally leaving them.

We Know and We Love because in Jesus, God has United Himself to Humanity Forever.

Notes on latest sermon (Beginning a series in 1 John):

Introduction to the Sermon Series

• At its heart, Christianity is not a moral improvement programme, or a get out of Hell free ticket. It’s the birthing of a new humanity (2 Cor. 5:17). This new humanity is hallmarked by the Spirit of God coming to live inside of you, (John 14:23). It happens through God's initiative, (John 1:13) sending his own Son into the world to redeem the world, (John 3:16), so that they may be united to it (John 17:20-23).

Testing Reftagger

Just added a cool new tool to the blog that I found on Bernard Hull's blog and which automatically produces the bible verse, when you hover (not hoover) the mouse over the top!

Verses like John 3:16 and Romans 8:28 and 1 John 1:1-4

It doesn't appear to work for longer refs like epic Psalm 119.

But it does work for short hand like Deut 6:4?

Preach It Moses!

James Jordan says that most of Deuteronomy, which he likes to refer to as "Old Gold" :-), is Moses' expositional sermon on the 10 commandments. Sometimes the links seem a little tenuous to our modern ears, but am beginning to see where he is coming from. I can't remember the exact divisions he makes, but it goes something like this:

My Kind of TV

Professor Brian Cox has a fascinating take on the origins of the universe. Hope to pass more comment on it at a later date, but for now go watch and get those thinking juices flowing. :-)

Love: The Goal of Law

Deuteronomy 6-8

Having been led out of Egypt by the Angel of the LORD (or Jesus under cover as Phil Moore would say) and taken all the way to Mt Sinai to meet the LORD who descends from Heaven, one could be left thinking: If these two LORDs have a disagreement, who do we go with? 

Marriage, It Appears, Is A Taxing Business!

I got this email from CARE today:

CARE is today releasing a special Supporter Briefing on next week's Budget. As noted in Impact Direct last Friday, the Budget, announced a week today, provides the Government with an opportunity to honour its commitment to recognise marriage in the tax system. If the Government fails to realise this commitment next week, we will have to wait another 12 months before they will have the opportunity to implement this decision again.